My Story

If you asked me even at age 4, who I wanted to be when I grew up, without hesitation, the answer always was, ‘veterinarian’. However, my parents did not believe it was a wise plan. So instead, I became a dentist and worked in private practice. After 7 years of working as a dentist, I became interested in biomedical engineering. I completed my masters program in biomedical engineering from UCLA. Since then, I have worked in pharma, oncology, dental/medical device companies, always involved in various aspects of biomedical research and have found working in biotech to be interesting and challenging. However, my love of animals endured and I never thought that here is where I would find my biggest challenge.

I always loved animals and volunteered as a dog walker for my neighbors when I was 9. I also volunteered with the local zoo when I was older, helping rehabilitate injured or orphaned wild animals for re-introduction to the wild. When I was working as a dentist, I would often have little patients at home too – an injured owl, a heron with a broken leg, orphaned squirrels; I also had fish, roosters and dogs. Growing up, animals were a large and very important part of my life.

I was always interested in animal behavior and training but did not know that there were three kinds of trainers -

1. Trainers that used force and pain to get compliance
2. Rewards-based trainers that got obedient dogs 
3. Concept-based trainers that used rewards to teach a dog to behave well

Trainer 1 – using force and intimidation to force the dog to comply a.k.a. “show your dog who is boss/pack leader/alpha”

We got our first family dog when I was 13 and I loved him so much! I wanted him to be the best-behaved, best-trained doberman there was. I borrowed books from our veterinarian to read and train the puppy. Unfortunately, the only kind of training in those books was the one using choke collars and punishment if the dog did something wrong. I was a Trainer 1 – I used force, and only used rewards if the dog was doing what I wanted, else he was punished. So I used a choke chain and yelled ‘no!’. I did not know it then, but punishment destroys dog-human relationships and breeds mistrust and increases aggressive behaviors.

That puppy grew up to be one of the most unpredictable dogs our family had because he simply did not trust people. No one could pet him, no one could stand near him. While he had his obedience pat down, if you said ‘no’, he got upset and hurled all 100 pounds of himself at you. He bit me 5 different times. He did not trust anyone in the family and I knew this was my fault. I never had the well-behaved dog I wanted because I had made him deeply unhappy and suspicious of people. To say that my treatment of him has been a lasting regret is an understatement. I vowed I would never punish a dog again.

By the way, the ‘alpha theory’ a lot of this type of training is based on, was debunked more than a decade ago.

Trainer 2 – training dogs using reward-based training methods

The next puppy I had, I learned about positive reinforcement techniques and he became a wonderful dog. He also was born with a solid temperament. This dog was a gem and did not have any major behavioral issues, we were happy with him as our family dog. He did bite strangers. However, he was meant to be a guard dog for the family home, so my parents did not feel the need to change it. Good thing, because I wouldn’t have known how to either!

Trainer 3 – playing games to get real life results because they teach the dogs emotional self-regulation, resilience, and how to make good choices in any situation. 

I adopted my shelter dog, Rosie in March of 2016 and she came to us with a host of issues. She bit people, fought other dogs, resource guarded food and toys from people and other dogs, barked incessantly at every sound (so much that she almost got me evicted from my apartment), could not be walked without a muzzle because she tried to attack everyone and everything on a walk, my life with her was constant stress. And except me, she attacked other family members every single day for three years.

Rosie the rescue who was my motivation to become a professional dog trainer

I was at my wits end! Positive reinforcement training helped teach her a bunch of new tricks and basic obedience. However, many of her issues did not go away, because as many of us have experienced, an obedient dog is not a well-behaved dog! 

She would do the down-stay but all that went out of the window if she saw another dog walk past. She could go to her place but then fly off her bed to bite a visitor...

After many books, conferences and discussions with trainers, I realized the only way to get to the bottom of her problems to help her, was to become an educated trainer myself. Like many pet guardians, I refused to believe that the only way forward was to either strap a shock collar on her, or give up and believe this was the life we would live – walks that were nightmares, no visitors ever, and a terrified and aggressive dog that was always on edge.

After learning concept training, Rosie has made remarkable improvements in behavior and now lives with a doggie friend, walks are a breeze and she no longer resource guards. After I became a professional trainer six years ago, I realized there were many dogs like Rosie that needed help and I started working professionally as a dog trainer. After hundreds of successes with shelter, rescue and purebred dogs of every size, shape and breed, I have created a solid framework to help dogs with even the most complex behavior issues and am so honored to work with dedicated guardians who want the best for their dog. 

Play is a powerful agent of change and food, toys, fun and play go a LONG way in helping families live in harmony.